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“You don’t have any siblings, do you?”
“No,” he said back. “My mother is unmated. I’m the result of a long-term relationship that has since ended. My father found his mate and left.”
Sandy’s face fell. “I’m sorry.”
“Do not be. He escaped my mother. I’m envious, truly.” He chuckled, but there wasn’t any humor in the sound.
“That doesn’t give him the right to abandon you.”
“Abandon?” He frowned, his brow pinching. He didn’t have hairy eyebrows like her. His seemed to be made of the same soft, downy feathers that covered telfay female bodies. “He didn’t have a choice.”
“How does he not have a choice? He left you for his new family. Just because your mom wasn’t his mate doesn’t mean you’re not his child.”
Her anger was rising, wondering how he could have two such terrible parents, but understanding dawned across his features.
“I think I see your confusion. No, Sandy. My father truly is blameless. Er, basically, Levtiram is a strict matriarchy. Females rule our planet, and females rule the family. Once my father mated, my mother claimed full rights to me and forbade him from seeing me.”
Sandy’s jaw dropped, stunned. “What?! She can just do that? He gets no rights to you at all? He’s your father!”
“And she is my mother,” he agreed, sounding puzzled at her anger.
“Exactly! She should want the best for you! Oh, look who I’m talking about.” Sandy rolled her eyes, getting more irritated with this female every time she learned something new about her. “This is ridiculous. Why do you even put up with her?”
“She is my mother,” he repeated helplessly.
“So? Blood is mud, you know.”
“What?”
“Just what I said! Those people who are all like, ‘oh, they’re family, so you have to be nice to them’ are full of it.”
“Full of what?”
“Her being your mother doesn’t mean anything if you being her son doesn’t mean anything.”
“How can you say that after telling me that you spent years taking care of your sick grandmother?”
“I didn’t take care of her because we shared blood. If my mother had left me on a random lady’s doorstep and she cared for me like grandma had, I would have loved her just as much. Love has nothing to do with blood. And family has little to do with loyalty. It’s a stepping off point, sure, but that kind of one lane thinking is what makes people think they can take advantage of the people they’re supposed to be closest to. Every asshole has a family; that doesn’t mean they automatically deserve the benefits of one.”
Sandy was heated. She felt passionate about this. Because it was something she’d needed to confront in her own mind in the past. What would she do if her mother ever showed up again? It was a question to meditate and ponder upon for hours. Because she didn’t know her, but so many people gave her that inane argument – ‘but she’s family’ – like that meant anything.
It took a while. A lot of arguing with herself because every story and movie and personal anecdote had that foolish line – ‘they’re family.’
Sandy had come to the conclusion that ‘but we’re family’ was only something said by people who didn’t deserve the benefits of family. If they deserved it, if they gave it, they would never need to make that argument because the other person would have already acted like family.
To have that line applied to her relationship with her grandmother was insulting. She loved her grandmother unconditionally, just as she had been loved in turn. They weathered the worst and best years together and always looked after each other. That was what made them family, not some blood tie that deserved no more weight than that of a stranger.
“Your mother isn’t family. She’s just the person you’re most closely related to,” she finally said, her tone hard and unmoving. “And if you feel any different, then I would ask what she’s done that earned her such loyalty as family. Because from where I’m sitting, all she has done is forcibly separate you from your father and run your life like a tyrant. I don’t know why you let it happen.”
“I don’t have a choice,” he repeated sadly, looking away from her.
Sandy sighed shortly, annoyed, but backed off the subject. The severing of ties like that was something that had to be chosen. She couldn’t force it, regardless of her personal beliefs.
They fell into a slightly uncomfortable silence as she returned to eating. It was nice to be able to stuff her face and belly, and since she didn’t know when she’d get to do so again, she was going to eat until she was right on the verge of throwing up. Rane’s thoughts were elusive to her, but she was busy planning all the ways she could get away from Elffa as she angrily chewed.
“You said your grandmother told you to have adventures,” he said some time later, breaking the silence and changing the dead subject.
“Er, yeah. She did,” Sandy looked back at him. “Grandma and I, we lived a bit of a cloistered life. Kind of on purpose. Grandma had bad hips, and I never really felt the need to go out. So, we spent a lot of time together indoors. She had this stupid thought at the end that doing so meant that I missed out on something. So, when she died, she sold the house and told me to go out and live.”
